Dear students: This past weekend, I spent an amazing 3 days at Fall Creek Falls state park with 3 of my best friends from high school (pictures added throught this blog!). Besides experiencing some of the most beautiful scenery that I have seen in a long time, I had a conversation with one of my friends that relates to our class. One of my friends is currently building a house that he and his family hope to move into by January. I was very interested as he explained the very complex process that goes into building a home. This friend of mine is very gifted in this line of work and he is building a lot of the home himself because he knows what he is doing. As he was explaining the work to me I thought, "I wish I knew how to build houses; or anything for that matter." You see, I have never been very gifted in constructing anything-God just did not give me those types of gifts. I can understand and appreciate the mathematics behind a building, but to physically build a house would be way out of my league. If I had time, I would love for my friend to teach me how to build a house so that I could enjoy this process one day for myself.
I know that a lot of you see no purpose in studying mathematics right now and perhaps you never will. Some of you say that, "I will never use this in my life so why should I spend so much time on it"? And while there is some truth to this statement, the truth is that we do use mathematical skills every day of our lives. Without mathematics, your mind would be void of how to think critically and how to think in an evaluative manner. Problems will come up in college and in later life that will require reasoning skills and by studying something as crazy as the Unit Circle, you are training your mind how to reason and how to think through certain process.
Here is a list of some specific ways in which you will need mathematical skills if you are not going into a math related field:
1. Most of you will have to take at least 1-2 math courses in college. It is important to be prepared!
2. In your job or in married life, it is important to be able to keep a budget, calculate taxes, understand a bank loan/statement, the probability of a move, calculate a mortgage payment, or to not embarrass yourself at the check out register when a question comes up about your change or a % off sale.
3. Your boss might ask you to compile a report for a product that you are selling that might require a statistical breakdown or several graphs. You want to know what you are doing in a situation like this.
4. Your future child will call upon you for help with their math homework.
One has to remember that God is the author of mathematics. God is the one that created the proportions of the elements on Earth. He knew exactly how to proportion nitrogen and oxygen so that we could breath. He knew the exact angle and distance to set the Earth from the sun so that we would not burn up or freeze to death. He set the freezing point of water to a perfect 32 degrees (F). Can you imagine if the freezing point of water were any higher than this?
Math is worth studying because God created it and he used it in some amazingly creative ways to set up His universe. My house building friend tells me all the time how valuable his math courses were to him in high school in college because he directly uses them in his line of work (he even uses trig!). But even if you will not build houses or be an engineer, math is still extremely important to study and know.
Perhaps you have heard the beautiful hymn, "Amazing Love". In this song, the author writes, "In all I do, I honor you". You can honor God through the study of math whether or not you have any direct interest in the subject. As Paul says in Colossians, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17
Special Thanks to my friend Steve Marsh for the photos! Thanks Steve.
No comments:
Post a Comment